Logitech says goodbye to Squeezebox soon, replaced with Ultimate Ears

Over the years, Logitech’s Squeezebox has offered streaming online audio and networked music libraries in various forms, but these devices are changing, as Logitech begins to let go of the Squeezebox name and replace it with something a touch more “ultimate”.

Already, the Squeezebox line-up has been pulled from Logitech’s Australian website, practically signalling the death knell for this range of products.

While Logitech acquired Squeezebox’s parent company of Slim Devices in 2006, the company is moving forward with a different brand. Headphone brand Ultimate Ears was picked up by Logitech in 2008, and this year, we’re beginning to see Logitech combine the two brands for products slated to hit later this year.

Logitech's UE Smart Radio reminds us of the Squeezebox Radio, but it runs on a different platform.

The first of these is the Logitech UE Smart Radio, a product that reminds us of an evolution of the Squeezebox Radio, with a colour screen and a new platform.

That platform is the main thing changing for the products, with Logitech UE’s Smart Radio apparently different to Squeezebox products. The service will support services such as Spotify, Pandora, BBC, Mog, and others, while also allowing smartphones and tablets to control the Smart Radio devices easily with apps made for the purpose.

With an obvious difference between the Logitech Squeezebox and Logitech UE products, customers may be caught out, worried that they need to shell out for a new product if they have one of these older Squeezebox devices in their homes.

To that end, a representative for Logitech in Australia told GadgetGuy that not only will Logitech’s mysqueezebox.com “service stay up indefinitely at this stage,” but that there will also be “upgrade software available to Australian users” later on.

Support will even continue for the range of products, and you won’t be required to update, but some of the features will be available to customers already with Squeezebox devices.

Even owners of the original Squeezebox from Logitech should be able to upgrade to the new platform if they want to.

When this update will be is anyone’s guess, but right now, the expectation is that if you’re using your Squeezebox with a media library, keep using it and you’ll be fine.

Those of you relying on your Squeezebox for media streaming, the online service it relies on will stay alive at least for the meantime, and when the UE Smart Radio platform arrives, you should be able to upgrade without needing to buy anything else.